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Correspondence, 1756-1764, of Maria Carter Armistead (including letters written by Mrs. Thomas Feilde); business papers, 1782-1828, of William Cocke of "Bremo," Henrico County, Virginia and of "Oakland," Cumberland County, Virginia; and letters, 1861-1863, of William Fauntleroy Cocke, Thomas Lewis Preston Cocke and Edmund Randolph Cocke concerning their service in the Confederate States Army (including the Battle of First Bull Run).

This collection contains materials dated 1784-1934. It includes correspondence, legal papers, and accounts, chiefly 1830-1892, of Benjamin S. Ewell, professor at the U.S. Military Academy, Hampden-Sydney College, Washington and Lee College, and the College of William and Mary (which he served as acting president, 1848-1849, and president, 1854-1888). Letters from Ewell during the Civil War when he was assistant adjutant-general to Gen. Joseph E. Johnston are included as well. Among the correspondents are members of the Tyler, Ewell, Campbell, and Brown families of Virginia and Tennessee. The collection also contains the memorandum book on the Ewell family by Elizabeth S. Ewell.

Papers from the household of Dora Travis Armistead (1890-1979) and Rowland Cara Armistead, sisters of Williamsburg, Virginia. Includes letters, personal, financial and business papers of Cary Peyton Armistead (1856-1901), father of Dora and Cara, Steward of Eastern Lunatic Asylum (now Eastern State Hospital), and prominent local Episcopal Church and school leader; Eudora Ester Armistead (d. 1940), mother; Cary Champion Armistead (d. 1944), brother, and lawyer for a time in Detroit, Michigan; Meriwether Irving Armistead (d. 1945), brother, and lawyer in Williamsburg; and Dora and Cara Armistead, elementary school teachers; along with materials related to relatives in the Armistead family, most notably Gregory Armistead, brother, who died at an early age; and Julia Maria Armistead (1858-1897), sister of Cary Peyton. The papers pertain primarily to Armistead family finances, health and personal affairs, the financial operation of the asylum/hospital, and school and church issues. Also included are a number of undated and unlabeled photographs, schoolwork of the Armistead siblings as children and college students, letters to Cary Peyton from College of William and Mary Presidents Benjamin S. Ewell and Lyon G. Tyler, and a long series of letters to Cary Champion from girlfriend Ruth Conkey.

Included are minutes of the Wise Light Infantry Co. of Williamsburg, 1881-1882; the College of William and Mary Alumni Association, 1906-1917; papers concerning the College of William and Mary including letters, 1873, from Benjamin S. Ewell; the Williamsburg Free School Trustees, 1870-1907; and the Democratic Committee of Williamsburg.

Papers include correspondence, 1884-1885, of Jefferson Davis and correspondence, 1890-1904, of Varina Howell Davis with Flora Adams Darling; and a ledger, 1858, believed to be the mailing list for Davis while United States Senator from Mississippi; and correspondence, 1904, of Jefferson Davis Monument Association of Richmond, Va. Includes letter, 25 January 1890, of Varina Davis to Benjamin Stoddert Ewell. Also includes broadside, 1862, of Davis' Inaugural Address; and program, 1893, of exercises at the re-interment of Davis' remains and engravings and prints of Davis.